Peru: 'It could take one or two days to rescue the miners'

Peru's Prime Minister visits the site of the mine collapse and estimates that
the rescue of the nine trapped miners could take one or two more days.

2:27PM BST 09 Apr 2012

Several dozen rescue workers have been using pickaxes and shovels to try to remove the 26 feet of collapsed earth and rock blocking the entrance of the mine, whose horizontal shaft is dug into a mountainside in Ica, 175 miles southeast of Lima.

The mine's collapse on Thursday occurred following a blast set by the miners themselves in a mine last exploited commercially in the 1980s.

"They're being subjected to a lot of cold. The temperature is low because of the humidity," said Peru's Prime Minister Oscar Valdes as he visited the site.

Mr Valdes told the reporters he estimated the miners would be freed in one to two more days and that he had spoken to the men.

Through a hose, rescuers have been able to communicate with the trapped miners and provide them with liquid sustenance and the local police chief, Jose Saavedra, told The Associated Press that several tons of earth and rock have already been removed from the tunnel's mouth.